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Midterm

The document provides an overview of language testing and assessment, distinguishing between testing and assessment while outlining various types of assessments such as formal, informal, formative, and summative. It details the characteristics and qualities of effective tests, including reliability, validity, authenticity, practicality, impact, and interactiveness, along with different test types like proficiency, achievement, and diagnostic tests. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of aligning tests with learning objectives and ensuring they reflect real-world language use to promote meaningful learning experiences.

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Thùy Dương
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
16 views3 pages

Midterm

The document provides an overview of language testing and assessment, distinguishing between testing and assessment while outlining various types of assessments such as formal, informal, formative, and summative. It details the characteristics and qualities of effective tests, including reliability, validity, authenticity, practicality, impact, and interactiveness, along with different test types like proficiency, achievement, and diagnostic tests. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of aligning tests with learning objectives and ensuring they reflect real-world language use to promote meaningful learning experiences.

Uploaded by

Thùy Dương
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Introduction to language testing and assessment

- Testing vs. Assessment


o Testing: A subset of assessment that is formal, structured, and time-constrained
o Assessment: A broader term that includes both formal (tests, assignments) and informal methods (observations, feedback, portfolios, journals,
oral participation tracking, etc.)
- Types of Assessment
o Formal Assessment – Planned, systematic, and structured (e.g. exams, standardized tests)
o Informal Assessment – Unplanned, incidental (e.g. casual feedback, coaching)
o Formative Assessment – Conducted during the learning process for improvement (e.g. quizzes, observations)
o Summative Assessment – Conducted at the end of a learning period to measure achievement (e.g. final exams, standardized tests)
- What is a test?
o According to Brown (2004), a test is a method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or performance in a given domain.
o A test must:
 Be a method – A structured process with specific techniques
 Measure something – Must quantify a learner’s ability or performance
 Assess individual ability, knowledge, or performance – Must match the test-taker’s abilities and be interpretable
 Measure performance, implying competence – The results reflect a learner's skills but within limitations
 Be domain-specific – Targeted toward a particular aspect of language proficiency
- Measurement, Evaluation & Testing
o Measurement – Assigning numbers or qualitative descriptions to performance (e.g. scores, feedback)
o Evaluation – Interpreting measurement data to make judgments (e.g. passing/failing a student)
o Testing – A method of assessment but not the only one used for evaluation
- Types of test:

Term Definition Examples

Proficiency Test Measures overall language ability, independent of any course. TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC

Measures success in achieving course objectives. Can be: Final (end-of-course) or


Achievement Test End-of-term exams, quizzes
Progress (ongoing).

Placement Test Determines a student's level and places them in an appropriate class. University placement exams

Pronunciation diagnostics, grammar gap


Diagnostic Test Identifies strengths and weaknesses for further instruction.
tests

Language Aptitude
Predicts a learner's potential to acquire a language. Rarely used today. MLAT, PLAB
Test

- Concept Comparison Table

Concept Definition Example

Direct Testing Measures actual skills by requiring real-world performance. Speaking test where students describe a picture

Indirect Testing Measures underlying skills instead of direct performance. Multiple-choice grammar tests

Discrete-point Testing Assesses one element of language at a time. Testing only verb tenses in a quiz

Integrative Testing Requires a combination of multiple language skills. Writing an essay that tests grammar, vocabulary, and coherence

Norm-referenced Testing Compares performance relative to other test-takers. Standardized test percentile scores

Criterion-referenced Testing Assesses whether a student meets a specific standard. Pass/fail driving test

Objective Scoring No human judgment required; fixed answers. Multiple-choice tests

Subjective Scoring Requires human judgment to evaluate responses. Essay grading

Qualities of language tests


- Testing as a contextualized practice with 6 qualities: Reliability + Construct Validity + Authenticity + Interactiveness + Impact + Practicality (Model
of test usefulness – Bachman & Palmer, 1996)
- Operationalizing principles:
o Maximizing overall usefulness, rather than individual test qualities
o Interdependence of the qualities
o Appropriate balance: context-dependence
- Principles of language assessment (Brown, 2018):
a. Reliability: The consistency of estimation of candidates’ abilities across different occasions, settings and versions of a test
o Factors => unreliability
 Student-related: temporary illness, physical/ psychological factors
 Rater: subjectivity, inter-rater (among raters), intra-rater (in a rater)
 Test administration: unclear instructions, environment (too noisy, facilities…)
 Test itself: ambiguous items, unexpected correct answers, too long
o Types:
 Test-retest: Same test is administered to the same group twice, compare scores
 Parallel forms: Different versions of a test are given to the same group
 Internal consistency (do tin cay nhat quan noi tai): Ensures that test items measuring the same construct produce similar results.
+ Average inter-item correlation: Compare responses across multiple related questions
+ Split-half reliability: Divide the test into two halves and check if both yield similar scores
- How to improve reliability
1. Use enough test items to cover various aspects of knowledge.
2. Exclude items that do not differentiate strong and weak students.
3. Avoid giving students too much choice (e.g. unrestricted essay topics).
4. Write clear, unambiguous items.
5. Provide explicit and detailed instructions.
6. Ensure the test format is clear, well-organized, and easy to read.
7. Familiarize students with the test format and structure.
8. Maintain standardized testing conditions.
9. Use scoring rubrics to maintain consistency in grading.
10. Train scorers properly to avoid subjective biases.
b. Validity: A test is valid if it accurately measures what it is intended to assess
o Construct Validity: The test should measure the intended theoretical construct (e.g. reading comprehension, listening ability) => Underlying
ability or trait being assessed
o Content Validity: The test should fully represent the language skills it aims to assess (e.g. A speaking test that only asks students to describe
pictures lacks content validity if it is supposed to assess conversation skills) => How well test items represent the language skills being assessed
o Criterion-related Validity: The test’s results should correlate with other reliable measures of the same skill => How well test performance
predicts or matches another measure
 Concurrent validity: The test correlates with an existing test
 Predictive validity: The test can predict future performance
o Face Validity: The test looks like it measures what it claims to assess (e.g. a pronunciation test lacks face validity if not require speaking)
o Consequential Validity: Examines the test’s impact on students, teachers, and society
c. Authenticity: A test is authentic when it reflects real-life language use
o Characteristics of Authentic Tests:
 Uses natural language
 Tasks are contextualized rather than isolated
 Topics are meaningful and relevant to the test-taker
 Items are thematically connected (e.g. a listening passage followed by a writing task)
 The test closely resembles real-world situations
 E.g. A listening test based on a natural conversation is more authentic than isolated sentence dictation.
d. Practicality: A test must be practical to design, administer, and score
o Factors affecting practicality:
 Time constraints (how long the test takes to complete and grade)
 Available resources (test materials, scoring system, examiners)
 The physical setup (e.g. is a speaking test feasible for large classes?)
o Formula: Practicality = Available Resources / Needed Resources
 If ≥1, the test is practical.
e. Impact (Washback Effect): The effect of a test on teaching and learning
- Positive Washback: promotes desirable teaching and learning behaviors, e.g. A communicative speaking test encourages students to practice real
conversations
- Negative Washback: hinders meaningful learning and encourages test-focused strategies
- How to achieve positive washback:
o Test what is important to test: Don’t only test what is easiest to assess, test content reflects real-world language use
o Sample widely and unpredictably: Avoid predictable patterns that encourage rote memorization, Use a variety of tasks to cover a broad range
of skills
o Direct testing = Assess the skill by having students perform the actual skill
o Students should be graded based on their performance against clear criteria, not compared to other students, e.g. IELTS band descriptors provide
clear performance levels rather than ranking students against each other
o Based on learning objectives - a test should measure what students were taught, not just random knowledge, align with the course syllabus
o Provide clear instructions and sample questions, familiarize students with test formats before the exam
o Teachers need guidance and training on how to prepare students for tests effectively
o A poorly designed test can waste time and resources for both students and teachers
f. Interactiveness (Cognitive & Communicative engagement): A test should engage students’ cognitive and communicative abilities
- Ways to improve interactiveness:
o Include interactive tasks that require students to think critically.
o Provide opportunities for meaningful communication (e.g. role-playing tasks).
o Ensure test content is relevant and engaging.
- Example:
o A dialogue-based speaking test is more interactive than reading isolated sentences aloud
Note: 200-word answer:
- Understanding about the given term
- Explaination for the statement
- Give comparison between the given term and related one(s), examples and reflection.

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